1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to undergarments having specialized and necessary uses in hospital, nursing home and other surgical and other medical treatment settings.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Present practice in hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities where surgical and medical treatment is practiced finds patients dressed only in various types of normal undergarments and, additionally, loose-fitting gowns, robes or long pajama-top type garments.
The undergarments must be completely removed for a large number of surgical and medical procedures. Thus, on many occasions, the loose-fitting gowns, robes or other garments are the patients' only garment. Therefore, embarrassment and concern with body exposure and possible body exposure is a common feeling both on the part of both patients and those who are strangers to hospital environments and in contact with patients, for example, visitors. This problem is more extreme among paraplegics and hemiplegics and children (who must remove their undergarments even for a tonsillectomy) as well as patients undergoing radiological examinations of all types.
Separable or partially separable fitting undergarments that completely cover the groin area and yet allow for ease of examination, treatment and/or surgery are not presently provided for patients in hospital and nursing home settings. Available conventional fitted undergarments present great difficulty of access to the lower abdomen, groin and lower back areas during examination, treatment and surgery. In short, conventional fitted undergarments fail to allow any degree of highly selective or limited access to portions of or the entire lower abdomen, lower back and genital area for purposes of diagnostic examinations, surgery and continuing treatment in and near those areas of the body.
Apart from the conventional fitted undergarment described above, prior art patents indicate that attempts have been made in the past to solve the problems solved by our invention, but they, to our knowledge, have apparently not been commercially developed. Some prior art patents show separability of one or more sides of the garment, or the crotch, but not both sides and the crotch of ordinary garments and undergarments which are not intended for hospital use. They include U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,030,943, 1,281,058, 1,966,060, 1,995,531, 2,326,380, 2,525,170, 2,623,210 and 2,443,474. Materials and devices used to achieve separability of one or more sides or the crotch of these garments include buttons, zippers and drawstrings. However, as pointed out, no garment disclosed is completely separable along both sides and the crotch or, importantly, refastenable along both the sides and/or the crotch of the garment.
Prior art patents intended for medical use have the same limitations as the patents in the preceding paragraph. They include U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,895,343, 2,520,026 and 3,144,659, all of which have at least one area covering the body, ordinarily closed in a fitted garment, completely open, thus making a portion of the body visible, or possibly visible, at all times. Some prior art patents show garments with an openable crotch but integral and closed sides. They include U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,548,660, 2,396,599, 2,397,641 and 3,029,814. Again, these use buttons, snap fasteners and unwieldly "tunnel forming members" and lack speed and selectivity of access by medical personnel and complete fastenability.
While the above prior art describes, separately, complete separability of both sides of a pair of shorts (an undergarment), and, separately, a severable or open crotch, the prior art discussed above does not show both features in the same garment or recognize the need therefor. Further, none of the above-discussed prior art garments show partial severability and complete fastenability which enable a high degree of selectivity of access to the lower abdomen, lower back and genitourinary area.